Method for promoting contextual information to display pages containing hyperlinks

ABSTRACT

Contextual information concerning linked documents is promoted to display pages that contain hyperlinks to those documents. The contextual information can be immediately displayed, or it can be selectively displayed in response to a user selecting a text hyperlink anchor or a picture icon hyperlink anchor. Furthermore, the contextual information can include a variety of information about the linked document, including whether it has been modified within a predefined time period, such as the last 24 hours, a comment by the author concerning recent changes, and the size of the document. Preferably, the contextual information is automatically generated by a data promotion engine based on meta-data that is associated with the document and stored on a web site for the document. The contextual information may be either added to the document that corresponds to a display page at the time the document page is saved, or it may be dynamically uploaded to a browser when the display page is rendered by a browser. One of the types of contextual information stored in the meta-data is a manually defined category for a hyperlink in the display page.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention pertains to the use of hyperlinks oncomputer networks in general, and to the use of hyperlinks with embeddedtextual content, in particular.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] An on-line information system typically includes one or morecomputers (the servers) that makes information available so that othercomputers (the clients) can access the information. The server managesaccess to the information, which can be structured as a set ofindependent on-line services. A server and client communicate viamessages conforming to a communication protocol that are sent over acommunication channel, such as a computer network, or through a dial-upconnection.

[0003] Typical uses for on-line services include document viewing,electronic commerce, directory lookup, on-line classifiedadvertisements, reference services, electronic bulletin boards, documentretrieval, electronic publishing, keyword searching of documents,technical support for products, and directories of on-line services. Aservice may make information available to clients free of charge, or fora fee, and may be on publicly accessible networks, such as the Internet,or on private networks.

[0004] Information sources managed by the server may include files,databases, and applications that execute on the server or on a clientcomputer. The information that the server provides may simply be storedon the server, may be converted from other formats manually orautomatically, may be computed on the server in response to a clientrequest, may be derived from data and applications on the server orother machines, or may be derived by any combination of thesetechniques.

[0005] The user of an on-line service typically employs a browserprogram executed on the client to access the information managed by theon-line service. Possible user capabilities include viewing, searching,downloading, printing, editing, and filing the information managed bythe server. The user may also price, purchase, rent, or reserve servicesor goods offered through an on-line service.

[0006] On-line services are available on the World Wide Web (WWW), whichoperates over the global Internet. The Internet is a wide area network(WAN) comprising a multitude of generally unrelated computer networksthat are interconnected. Similar services are available on privatenetworks called “Intranets” that may not be connected to the Internet,and through local area networks (LANs) and other WANs. The WWW andsimilar private network architectures provide a “web” of interconnecteddocument objects, and these document objects are located at varioussites. A more complete description of the WWW is provided in “TheWorld-Wide Web, “by T. Berners-Lee, R. Cailliau, A. Luotonen, H. F.Nielsen, and A. Secret, Communications of the ACM, 37 (8), pp. 76-82,August 1994, and in “World Wide Web: The Information Universe,” byBerners-Lee, T., et al., in Electronic Networking: Research.Applications and Policy, Vol. 1, No. 2, Meckler, Westport, Conn., Spring1992.

[0007] Among the types of document objects in an on-line service aredocuments and scripts. Documents that are published on the WWW areusually written in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). This languageis described in HyperText Markup Language Specification-2.0, by T.Berners-Lee and D. Connolly, RFC 1866, proposed standard, November 1995,and in “World Wide Web & HTML,” by Douglas C. McArthur, in Dr. DobbsJournal, December 1994, pp. 18-20, 22, 24, 26 and 86. Many companies arealso developing their own enhancements to HTML. HTML documents aregenerally static, that is, their contents do not change over time unlessmodified by a service developer or by the author. HTML documents can becreated using programs such as Microsoft Corporation's FRONTPAGE™ webpage development program, which are specifically designed for thatpurpose, or by executing a script file, and can include JAVA™ and/orACTIVEX™ programming language code.

[0008] The HTML language is used for writing hypertext documents, whichare more formally referred to as Standard Generalized Markup Language(SGML) documents that conform to a particular Document Type Definition(DTD). An HTML document includes a hierarchical set of markup elements;most elements have a start tag, followed by content, followed by an endtag. The content is a combination of text and nested markup elements.Tags, which are enclosed in angle brackets (‘<’and ‘>’), indicate howthe document is structured and how to display the document, as well asdestinations and labels for hypertext links. There are tags for markupelements such as titles and headers, text attributes such as bold anditalic, lists, paragraph boundaries, links to other documents or otherparts of the same document, in-line graphic images, and tags for manyother features.

[0009] The following lines of HTML briefly illustrate how the languageis used:

[0010] Some words are <B> bold</B>, others are <I> italic </I>. Here westart a new paragraph. <P> Here's a link to

[0011] the <A HREF=“http://www.microsoft.com”> Microsoft Corporation</A> homepage.

[0012] This sample document is a hypertext document because it containsa hypertext “link” (hyperlink) to another document, in the line thatincludes “HREF=.” The format of this link is described below. Ahypertext document may also have a link to other parts of the samedocument. Linked documents may generally be located anywhere on theInternet.

[0013] When a user is viewing the document with a client program calleda Web browser (described below), the links are displayed as highlightedwords or phrases. For example, using a Web browser, the sample documentabove might be displayed on the user's screen as follows:

[0014] Some words are bold, others are italic. Here we start a newparagraph.

[0015] Here's a link to the Microsoft Corporation homepage. Thehighlighted words or phrases comprise the link's “anchor.” In additionto displaying text, a picture icon may also be used as a hyperlinkanchor and may be combined with a text block so that both serve as thehyperlink anchor.

[0016] In a Web browser, the link may be selected, for example, byclicking on the highlighted area with a mouse. Typically, the screencursor changes shape and/or color when positioned on the hypertextanchor. Selecting a link will cause the associated document to bedisplayed. Thus, clicking on the highlighted text (underlined in theabove example) reading “Microsoft Corporation” would retrieve anddisplay the associated homepage for that entity.

[0017] The HTML language also provides a mechanism (the image or “IMG”element) that enables an HTML document to include by reference, animage, which is stored as a separate file. When the end user views theHTML document, the included image is displayed as part of the document,at the point where the image element reference occurred in the document.

[0018] Another kind of document object in a web page is a “script.” Ascript is an executable program, or a set of commands stored in a file,that can be run by a server program called a Web server (describedbelow) to produce an HTML document that is then returned to the Webbrowser. Typical script actions include running library routines orother applications to fetch information from a file or a database, orinitiating a request to obtain information from another machine, orretrieving a document corresponding to a selected hypertext link. Ascript may be run on the Web server when, for example, the end userselects a particular hypertext link in the Web browser, or submits anHTML form request. Scripts are usually written by a service developer inan interpreted language such as Basic, Practical Extraction and ReportLanguage (Perl), or Tool Control Language (Tcl) or one of the Unixoperating system shell languages, but they also may be written in morecomplex programming languages such as “C” and then compiled to producean executable program. Programming in Tcl is described in more detail inTcl and the Tk Toolkit, by John K. Ousterhout, Addison-Wesley, Reading,Mass., USA, 1994. Perl is described in more detail in Programming inPerl, by Larry Wall and Randal L. Schwartz, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.,Sebastopol, Calif., USA, 1992. JAVA and ACTIVEX programs are alsofrequently employed in web pages to implement various tasks.

[0019] Each document object in a web has an identifier called aUniversal Resource Identifier (URI). These identifiers are described inmore detail in T. Berners-Lee, “Universal Resource Identifiers in WWW: AUnifying Syntax for the Expression of Names and Addresses of Objects onthe Network as used in the World-Wide Web,” RFC 1630, CERN, June 1994;and T. Bemers-Lee, L. Masinter, and M. McCahill, “Uniform ResourceLocators(URL),” RFC 1738, CERN, Xerox PARC, University of Minnesota,December 1994. A URI allows any object on the Internet to be referred toby name or address, such as in a link in an HTML document as shownabove. There are two types of URIs: a Universal Resource Name (URN), anda Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URN references an object by namewithin a given name space. A URL references an object by defining anaccess algorithm using network protocols. An example of a URL is“http://www.microsoft.com”. A URL has the syntax“scheme://host:port/path?search” where:

[0020] “scheme” identifies the access protocol (such as HTTP, FTP, orGOPHER);

[0021] “host” is the Internet domain name of the machine that supportsthe protocol and comprises the fully qualified domain name of a networkhost, or its IP address written as a set of four decimal digit groupsseparated by periods. Fully qualified domain names take the form of asequence of domain labels separated by periods, each domain labelstarting and ending with an alphanumerical character and possibly alsocontaining “−” characters. The rightmost domain label will never startwith a digit, though, which syntactically distinguishes all domain namesfrom the IP addresses (See Section 3.5 of RFC 1034 and Section 2.1 ofRFC 1123).

[0022] “port” is the transmission control protocol (TCP) port number ofthe appropriate server (if different from the default);

[0023] “path” is a scheme specific identification of the object. Itsupplies the details of how the specified resource can be accessed. Notethat the “/” between the host (or port) and the path is NOT part of thepath; and

[0024] “search” contains optional parameters for querying the content ofthe object.

[0025] URLs are also used by web servers and browsers on privatecomputer systems, Intranets, or networks, and not just for the WWW. TheHTTP URL scheme is used to designate Internet resources that may beaccessed using HTTP, and an HTTP URL has the syntax“http://<host>:<port>/<path>?<searchpart>”, where <host> and <port> areas described above. If: <port> is omitted, the port defaults to 80. Nouser name or password is allowed; <path> is an HTTP selector, and<searchpart> is a query string. The <path> is optional, as is the<searchpart> and its preceding “?”. If neither <path> nor <searchpart>is present, the “/” may also be omitted. Within the <path> and<searchpart> components, “/”, “;”, “?” are reserved. The “/” charactermay be used within HTTP to designate a hierarchical structure.

[0026] There are generally two types of URLs that may be used in thehypertext link: absolute URLs, and relative URLs. An absolute URLincludes a protocol identifier, a machine name, and an optional HTTPport number. A relative URL does not include a protocol identifier,machine name or port, and must be interpreted relative to some knownabsolute URL called the base URL. The base URL is used to determine theprotocol identifier, machine name, optional port, and base directory fora relative URL. For further discussion of URL format and usage, see thedocument “Uniform Resource Locators,” Internet Request for Comments(RFC) 1738, by T. Berners-Lee, L. Masinter, M. McCahill, University ofMinnesota, December 1994. For further discussions of relative URL formatand usage, see “Relative Uniform Resource Locators,” RFC 1808, by R.Fielding, University of California, Irvine, June 1995.

[0027] A hypertext link to an electronic document is specified by one ofseveral HTML elements. One of the parameters of an HTML element for ahypertext link is the URL that serves as the identifier for the targetof the link. An HTML document may have a base element defining anabsolute URL that specifies the base URL for that document. If thedocument has no base element, then the absolute URL of the document isused as the base URL. The base element provides a base address forinterpreting relative URLs when the document is read out of context.

[0028] For example, FIG. 1A shows text having a document URL 10, a baseelement 12, a hypertext link with an absolute URL 14, and a hypertextlink with a relative URL 16, which is evaluated with respect to base URL12 to produce a resulting URL 18. As an additional example, FIG. 1Bshows text having a document URL 20, no base element, a hypertext linkwith an absolute URL 22, and a hypertext link with a relative URL 24,which is evaluated with respect to document URL 20 to produce aresulting URL 26.

[0029] A site at which documents are made available to network users iscalled a “Web site” and must run a “Web server” program to provideaccess to the documents. A Web server program is a computer program thatallows a computer on the network to make documents available to the restof the WWW or a private network. The documents are often hypertextdocuments in the HTML language, but may be other types of documentobjects as well, and may include images, audio, and/or videoinformation. The information that is managed by the Web server includeshypertext documents that are stored on the server or are dynamicallygenerated by scripts on the Web server. Several Web server softwarepackages exist, such as the Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire(CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) server or theNational Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) server. Webservers have been implemented for several different platforms, includingthe Sun Corporation SPARC II™ workstation running the Unix operatingsystem, and personal computers with the Intel PENTIUM™ processor runningthe Microsoft MS-DOS™ operating system and the Microsoft WINDOWS™graphic user interface operating environment.

[0030] Web servers also have a standard interface for running externalprograms, called the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). CGI is described inmore detail in How to Set Up and Maintain a Web Site, by Lincoln D.Stein, Addison-Wesley, August 1995. A gateway is a program that handlesincoming information requests and returns the appropriate document orgenerates a document dynamically. For example, a gateway might receivequeries, look up the answer in a database to provide a response, andtranslate the response into a page of HTML so that the server can sendthe response to the client. A gateway program may be written in alanguage such as “C” or in a scripting language such as Perl or Tcl orone of the Unix operating system shell languages. The CGI standardspecifies how the script or application receives input and parameters,and specifies how output should be formatted and returned to the server.

[0031] For security reasons, a Web server machine may limit access tofiles. To control access to files on the Web server, the Web serverprogram running on the server machine may provide an extra layer ofsecurity above and beyond the normal file system and login securityprocedures of the operating system on the server machine. Access to theon-line service document objects via a network file system would notconform to the security features of the Web server program and wouldprovide a way to access documents outside of the security provided bythe Web server. The Web server program also typically maps documentobject names that are known to the client to file names on the serverfile system. This mapping may be arbitrarily complex, and any author orprogram that tries to access documents on the Web server directly wouldneed to understand this name mapping.

[0032] A user (typically using a computer other than the Web server) whowishes to access documents available on the network at a Web site mustrun a Web browser. The combination of the Web server and Web browsercommunicating over a computer network using an HTTP protocol is referredto herein as a “web architecture.” The Web browser program allows theuser to retrieve and display documents from Web servers. Some of thepopular Web browser programs are: NAVIGATOR™ browser from NetScapeCommunications Corp. of Mountain View, Calif.; MOSAIC™ browser from theNational Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA); WINWEB™ browser,from Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp. of Austin, Tex.; andInternet Explorer from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Webbrowsers have been developed to run on different platforms, includingpersonal computers with the Intel Corporation PENTIUM™ processor runningMicrosoft Corporation's MS-DOS™ operating system and MicrosoftCorporation's WINDOWS™ graphic user interface operating systemenvironment, and Apple Corporation's MACINTOSH™ personal computers, aswell as various UNIX™ operating system platforms.

[0033] The Web server and the Web browser communicate using theHypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) message protocol and the underlyingtransmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) data transportprotocol of the Internet. HTTP is described in Hypertext TransferProtocol-HTTP/1.0, by T. Berners-Lee, R. T. Fielding, H. FrystykNielsen, Internet Draft Document, Oct. 14, 1995. In HTTP, the Webbrowser establishes a connection to a Web server and sends an HTTPrequest message to the server. In response to an HTTP request message,the Web server checks for authorization, performs any requested action,and returns an HTTP response message containing an HTML document inaccord with the requested action, or an error message. The returned HTMLdocument may simply be a file stored on the Web server, or may becreated dynamically using a script called in response to the HTTPrequest message. For instance, to retrieve a document, a Web browser maysend an HTTP request message to the indicated Web server, requesting adocument by reference to the URL of the document. The Web server thenretrieves the document and returns it in an HTTP response message to theWeb browser. If the document has hypertext links, then the user mayagain select one of the links to request that a new document beretrieved and displayed. As another example, a user may fill in a formrequesting a database search. In response, the Web browser will send anHTTP request message to the Web server including the name of thedatabase to be searched, the search parameters, and the URL of thesearch script. The Web server calls a search program, passing in thesearch parameters. The program examines the parameters and attempts toanswer the query, perhaps by sending the query to a database interface.When the program receives the results of the query, it constructs anHTML document that is returned to the Web server, which then sends it tothe Web browser in an HTTP response message.

[0034] Request messages in HTTP contain a “method name” indicating thetype of action to be performed by the server, a URL indicating a targetobject (either document or script) on the Web server, and other controlinformation. Response messages contain a status line, serverinformation, and possible data content. The Multipurpose Internet MailExtensions (MIME) specification defines a standardized protocol fordescribing the content of messages that are passed over a network. HTTPrequest and response messages use MIME header lines to indicate theformat of the message. MIME is described in more detail in MIME(Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): Mechanisms for Specifying andDescribing the Format of Internet Message Bodies, Internet RFC 1341,June 1992.

[0035] As discussed above, a user typically views documents on theInternet with a web browser. The web browser is able to distinguishhyperlinks from other HTML content, which allows the browser tohighlight the hyperlink anchors and/or change the cursor shape and/orcolor to inform the user that the underlying text or graphic is ahyperlink. The user can navigate a site or the web by simply clicking onvarious hyperlink anchors.

[0036] Although hyperlinks are a necessary and valuable feature, theyonly provide limited information to the user. For instance, the onlycomponent the user sees is the hyperlink anchor display text or thepicture icon. In some cases, there is other descriptive text that isposted in proximity to the hyperlink or picture icon, such as the text auser sees below hyperlinks on a search report page issued by an Internetsearch engine. This additional descriptive text must be either beencoded into the HTML document (as is the case for most web pages), orbe dynamically generated with an HTML script (as is true for searchengine pages). In either case, the descriptive text is not inherentlytied to the hyperlink.

[0037] To ensure that users return on a regular basis, it is desirableto provide changes in the content on web sites. A user may visit one ormore favorite sites on a periodic basis, hoping to find new content. Inmost instances, a hyperlink to a changed resource (e.g., a web page) andany associated descriptive text displayed adjacent to the hyperlink (orpart of a hyperlink picture icon) provide little or no indication thatthe resource has changed, and do not indicate when the most recentchange occurred. If this information does exist, it must be generated bythe author of the page containing the hyperlink, or the web siteadministrator. Even in the case of search page results, the informationprovided by a search engine is often out of date because the web pagedatabase the search engine uses was compiled before a change occurred.

[0038] It would be desirable to provide other information to a userbefore the user selects a hyperlink to access a linked resource. Forinstance, the linked resource might be a large document that can be verytime consuming to download, especially over a slow connection. It iscommon for users to click on hyperlinks to ascertain the content of thedocument the hyperlink is mapped to, without knowing the size of thedocument. If the user unknowingly picks a large document, the resultingwait time often causes the user to stop the download of the documentwithout ever viewing it, which results in a waste of both the user'stime and network bandwidth.

[0039] Thus, it would be advantageous for a user to be able to viewcontextual information concerning a linked document or other resource,such as its size, recent edits, etc., so that the user can decidewhether to view the document before selecting the link. This featurewould enable the user to find desired web page content more efficientlyand avoid downloading content that is not desired. In addition, thistype of contextual information would be advantageous to web sitedevelopers and administrators, since it would provide informationconcerning changes that are made to the documents on a site, indicatewho made the changes, and provide other information that might be ofinterest to a developer or administrator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0040] The present invention addresses many of the foregoing problemsassociated with conventional hyperlink identifiers by providing a systemand related method for adding contextual information pertaining to oneor more linked documents, to display pages that contain hyperlinks tothe linked documents. The contextual information can be immediatelydisplayed when a page is opened, or it can be dynamically displayedbased on a user interacting with a text hyperlink anchor or picture iconhyperlink anchor. The contextual information on a display page canassist a user in deciding whether to view the linked document. A varietyof information about the linked document can be displayed, includingwhether the linked document has been modified within a predeterminedtime period, an author's comments concerning any recent changes to thelinked document, and the size of the document. In addition, thecontextual information can be tailored to individual users. Forinstance, history information stored in a user's browser concerning thetimes and dates a user visits a site can be used to formulateuser-specific contextual information that is displayed on the browser,for example, as an icon that indicates a page referenced by the historyinformation has been changed since the user last visited it. The systemand method are preferably implemented as part of a web page authoringprogram.

[0041] The framework for adding the contextual information is providedby multiple contextual information files, each of which contains a setof “meta-data” entries. Preferably, in the meta-data, there is onecontextual information file associated with each document that is storedon the web site server. The meta-data entries include various parametersconcerning the associated document, such as time and date of lastmodification, author, the document's size, etc. The meta-data may alsoinclude an author's comments concerning recent changes, as well as otherinformation that an author of a linked document provides. Preferably,the meta-data additionally comprise a list of back linked documents—thatis, referring documents on the web site that contain a hyperlink to thedocument. The back link information is used by a data promotion engineto automatically promote the contextual information to display pagesthat correspond to the back linked documents.

[0042] According to a first aspect of the invention, a method isdisclosed for promoting contextual information associated with a linkeddocument to a display page that contains a hyperlink to the linkeddocument. When an author edits and saves the linked document, one ormore of the meta-data entries associated with the linked document areupdated, so that the contextual information for the display page can bedetermined. The data promotion engine then generates instructionscorresponding to the display of the contextual information so that thedisplay page will include the contextual information when the page isrendered by a browser. The instructions can either be added to thereferring document at the time the linked document is saved, or else theinstructions can be added to the HTML content of the referring documentwhen it is uploaded from the web site server to a browser at rendertime. The instructions preferably are HTML code and may include JAVAand/or ACTIVEX script.

[0043] According to another aspect of the invention, contextualinformation concerning a nested document can be added to a display pagethat contains a hyperlink to a linked intermediate document, which, inturn, contains a hyperlink to the nested document. The nested documenthas an associated contextual information file containing meta-dataentries that include a back link to the intermediate document. Likewise,the intermediate document has an associated contextual information filecontaining meta-data entries that include a back link to the displaypage document. The data promotion engine recursively follows these backlinks to determine that the contextual information instructions that itgenerates corresponding to the nested page can be added to the displaypage document. The display page may include contextual information forboth the nested document and the intermediate document.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

[0044] The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages ofthis invention will become more readily appreciated as the same becomesbetter understood by reference to the following detailed description,when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0045]FIG. 1A is a sample HTML document having a base URL, and includingboth a hyperlink using a relative URL and a hyperlink using an absoluteURL;

[0046]FIG. 1B is a sample HTML document that does not have a base URL,but including a hyperlink using a relative URL and a hyperlink using anabsolute URL;

[0047]FIG. 2 illustrates a homepage, a Cruises page, and a Caribbeancruise page that are linked to one another on an exemplary travel agencyweb site;

[0048]FIG. 3A illustrates the file structure of the documents thatcomprise the web site of FIG. 2;

[0049]FIG. 3B illustrates the URL structure of the web site shown inFIG. 2;

[0050]FIG. 3C illustrates the file structure of the contextualinformation files for the web site of FIG. 2;

[0051]FIG. 4 is an HTML document that corresponds to the homepage of theweb site of FIG. 2;

[0052]FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating the steps executed by apreferred embodiment of the present invention to create and/or modifycontextual information and insert such information into web sitedocuments;

[0053]FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the process that occurs whencontextual information is promoted to a display page or its underlyingdocument;

[0054]FIG. 7A shows exemplary contextual information corresponding tothe Cruises page that can be displayed on the homepage;

[0055]FIG. 7B shows exemplary contextual information corresponding tothe Caribbean page that can be displayed on the homepage;

[0056]FIG. 8 shows how contextual information concerning a nested pageis added to a display page that contains a hyperlink to an intermediatepage, which contains a hyperlink to the nested page;

[0057]FIG. 9A is an exemplary design page containing two category listcomponents;

[0058]FIG. 9B is a display page corresponding to the design page of FIG.9A;

[0059]FIG. 9C is a schematic diagram illustrating how hyperlinks arecreated based on the category information stored in various contextualinformation files; and

[0060]FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a personal computer system suitablefor implementing the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0061]FIG. 2 shows three web pages from an exemplary travel agency website called Travel Tickets, which has the URL “www.traveltickets.com.”The site's homepage 100, which is the first page a user will usually seewhen visiting the site, includes a company logo 101, and several pictureicons 102, 104, 106, and 108 that correspond to various categories oftravel offerings available at the site. Adjacent to the picture iconsand paired thereto are text hyperlink anchors 110, 112, 114, and 116.

[0062] As discussed above, Internet web sites typically comprisemultiple HTML documents that are stored on a web server. The pages(documents) for a web site are generally organized in a structuredhierarchy based on content level. In the example shown in FIG. 2,homepage 100 is at the top level of the content hierarchy, and there isa “nested” page for each of the travel categories that can be reached byeither clicking one of the picture icons or one of the associated texthyperlink anchors. For instance, clicking on either icon 104 or texthyperlink anchor 112 will link the browser to Cruises page 118, causingthe Cruises page to open in the browser. The Cruises page, and the pagesassociated with the other travel categories (e.g., Air Travel page,Trains page, etc., (not shown)) are all nested at a second level of thecontent hierarchy. As with the homepage 100, Cruises page 118 alsocontains hyperlinks pointing to pages that are nested below it,including “Alaska” hyperlink 120, “Caribbean” hyperlink 122, “PuertoRico” hyperlink 124, and “Mexico” hyperlink 126. Each of thesehyperlinks can be used to locate a page at a third level of the contenthierarchy. For instance, clicking on “Caribbean” hyperlink 122 will linkthe browser to a Caribbean Cruise page 128, which contains detailedinformation about a Caribbean cruise for which the user can purchasetickets at the web site. There are similarly nested detailed informationpages for the other cruise destinations (Alaska, Puerto Rico,Mexico-None Shown).

[0063] Clicking on an “I Want to Go!” button 130 causes the browser toopen a ticket reservation page (not shown), containing travel dates,accommodation options, pricing information, payment information, etc.Since the same ticket reservation page can be accessed from the otherthird level pages (e.g., from the Mexico Cruise page), the ticketreservation page is not nested below the third level pages, but instead,is located below the homepage on the second level of the contenthierarchy. Although not shown, homepage 100 may also contain a hyperlinkto the ticket reservation page.

[0064] Each of the pages (documents) on a web site is typically storedas an individual HTML file on the web site's server, in a file hierarchythat is similar in structure to the content hierarchy. Such a filehierarchy is shown in FIG. 3A. All of the documents are generally storedin a root directory folder, or in subfolders. For example, the HTMLfiles for the travel agency site are stored in a root folder 132 locatedon the server at “H:\server\travel”. The HTML homepage document iscommonly stored on the web server in the root folder, and generally hasa special name such as “index.htm” or “default.htm” so that the webserver can identify it as the homepage document. The specific nameapplied to the homepage document depends on the type of server used forthe web site. For instance, a homepage document 131 for the travelagency site is stored in root folder 132 as “index.htm.”The HTMLdocuments that correspond to the nested web pages are typically locatedin subdirectories (subfolders) that are nested at one or more levelsbelow the root directory. For example, an “index.htm” HTML document 133corresponding to the Cruises page is stored in a cruises subfolder 134(i.e., stored on the server as “H:\server\travel\cruises\index.html”),as well as a “caribbean.htm” HTML document 135 corresponding to theCaribbean Cruise page (i.e., stored on the server as“H:\server\travel\cruises\caribbean.htm”). There are additionalsubfolders corresponding to the different travel categories, includingan Air Travel subfolder 136, a trains subfolder 138, and a tourssubfolder 140. Each of subfolders 134, 136, 138, and 140 contains one ormore HTML documents corresponding to the content hierarchy of the site.

[0065]FIG. 3B illustrates a URL structure corresponding to the HTMLdocument file structure shown in FIG. 3A. It is common for a web site'sURL structure to parallel the file structure of the HTML documents forthat site, in what is known as a relative URL reference scheme, asdiscussed above. This scheme makes creating and changing URLs for a sitevery easy. When using this scheme, the URL references generally containa <path> portion that matches the path of its corresponding HTML filerelative to the root directory of the site. Note that the elements ofboth figures are nearly identical, with a few exceptions. One exceptionis that the file structure starts with a root address 142 at its top,while the URL structure starts with a URL base 144 at its top. Anotherexception is that both “index.htm” HTML documents 131 and 133 arereferenced by their indexed source and seem to “disappear” into thehierarchy. Actually, “index.htm” HTML document 131 corresponds tohomepage 100, and therefore its URL is the URL for the web site(http://www.traveltickets.com). Similarly, “index.htm” HTML document 133corresponding to the Cruises page 118 is referenced by the URL“http://www.traveltickets.com/cruises”—it has “disappeared” into the“/cruises” portion of the structure. The URL base 144 is simply“http://<host>,” wherein <host> is the domain name of the site's server.The travel agency example web pages shown in FIG. 2 contain URLs thatfollow this scheme, including a URL 146, corresponding to the homepage,a URL 148, corresponding to the Cruises page, and a URL 150,corresponding to the Caribbean Cruise page.

[0066] As discussed above, Internet web browsers translate the HTMLcontent of web page documents in order to display web pages. FIG. 4shows an example of an HTML document that corresponds to homepage 100 ofFIG. 2. The HTML document contains a variety of markup and tag elementsthat are retrieved and interpreted by the web browser, resulting in adisplay page that is similar to homepage 100. The document includes ahead section 200, and a body section 202. Most of the content of an HTMLdocument is included in the body section.

[0067] The top portion of body section 202 contains the HTML code todisplay the picture icons 102, 104, 106, and 108, and embed theirassociated hyperlinks. For instance, a markup 204 indicates that animage source 206 of the cruise ship icon is a GIF file located at[root\]Images\ship.gif. (the “H:\server\travel” portion is not includeddue to the use of a relative addressing scheme). Markup 204 alsoincludes a hyperlink reference 208 to the Cruises page.

[0068] The next portion of the body section 202 contains a list of texthyperlink markups 210 and associated text anchors. For example, ahyperlink markup 212 comprises a relative URL reference 214 of“\Cruises\Cruises.html” and a text anchor 216 of “Cruises.”

[0069] The web browser translates the HTML code from top to bottom,displaying the markup elements sequentially. Many newer browsers providea feature that displays a placeholder for each picture icon while thefile for the icon is downloaded, thereby allowing the textual markupelements to be displayed first. This technique enables a user to clickon a hyperlink within the display page while the picture icon graphiccontent is still being downloaded.

[0070] The present invention enhances conventional hyperlinks bydisplaying contextual information pertaining to a hyperlink's resource(e.g., a linked page) in proximity to and associated with thehyperlink's anchor. In order to provide this functionality, the presentinvention uses a low overhead scheme for storing contextual informationfor a linked resource and forwarding the contextual information to backlinked display pages that contain a hyperlink to the resource. Thecontextual information for a given resource is stored in a fileassociated with that resource. The file comprises a set of “meta-data”that concerns parameters relating to the resource, such as the last timethe resource was modified, the author's name, the size of the resource,and almost any other information that may be of interest to a user.

[0071]FIG. 3C shows the file structure hierarchy for the contextualinformation (meta-data) files corresponding to the travel agency website. The file structure shown here is an example of one of many waysthe files could be stored. The files could be stored in a variety ofdifferent databases, using various formats, as part of the file systemof the web-site server. The contextual information files are stored insubfolders called _vti_cnf subfolders within the same folders as theHTML documents to which they correspond, wherein each contextualinformation file shares the same name as its corresponding HTMLdocument. For example, root folder 132 contains a _vti_cnf subfolder152, which contains an “index.htm” contextual information file 154 thatcorresponds to “index.htm” (homepage) HTML file 131. This _vti_cnfsubfolder contains additional contextual information files forcorresponding HTML documents that are located in root folder 132, suchas a “reserve.htm” contextual information file 156 for a “\reserve.htm”file 142 (in FIG. 3A).

[0072] In a similar manner, each subfolder in the HTML file hierarchyincludes a _vti_cnf subfolder containing contextual information filesthat correspond to the HTML files in that HTML document subfolder,including a _vti_cnf subfolder 158 (corresponding to Air Travelsubfolder 136), a _vti_cnf subfolder 160 (corresponding to Cruisessubfolder 134), a _vti_cnf subfolder 162 (corresponding to Trainssubfolder 138), and a _vti_cnf subfolder 164 (corresponding to Tourssubfolder 140). These _vti_cnf subfolders 158, 160, 162, and 164 eachcontain one or more contextual information files corresponding to theHTML documents in their parent folder or subfolder. For example,_vti_cnf subfolder 160 contains an “index.htm” contextual informationfile 166 corresponding to “index.htm” HTML document 133, and a“caribbean.htm” contextual information file 168 corresponding to“caribbean.htm” HTML document 135. These files, along with the filehierarchy of the web site documents, comprise a “database” for the website.

[0073] An example of a contextual information file is shown below. Thisexample file corresponds to Cruises page 118 of the travel agency website example of FIG. 2, and is stored in “index.htm” contextualinformation file 166. \cruises\_vti_cnf\index.htm 1.vti_encoding:SR|utf8-nl 2. vti_author:SR|mdsmith 3.vti_modifiedby:SR|mdsmith 4. vti_timecreated:TR|02 Feb 1999 20:22:53-0000 5. vti_(1')timelastmodified:TR|02 Feb 1999 20:22:53 -0000 6.vti_cacheddtm:TX|02 Feb 1999 20:22:53 -0000 7. vti_filesize:IR|358 8.vti_cachedlinkinfo:VX| 9. vti_cachesvcrellinks:VX| 10.vti_cachedtitle:SR|Cruises page 11. vti_title:SR|Cruises page 12.vti_cachedbodystyle:SR|<BODY> 13. vti_cachedhasbots:BR|false 14.vti_cachedhastheme:BR|false 15. vti_cachedhasborder:BR|false 16.vti_metatags:VR|HTTP-EQUIV=Content-Language en-us HTTP- 17.EQUIV=Content-Type text/html;\\ charset=windows-1252 GENERATOR 18.Microsoft\\ FrontPage\\ 4.0 ProgId FrontPage.Editor.Document 19.vti_prgid:SR|FrontPage.Editor.Document 20. vti_generator:SR|MicrosoftFrontPage 4.0 21. vti_extenderversion:SR|4.0.2.2505 22. vti_back linkinformation:VX|..\Index.htm 23. vti_comments:VX|“New Cruises to Mexico”

[0074] The meta-data entries in the above example include the author'sname (line 2), the name of the person who made the last modification tothe document (line 3), the data and time the document was last modified(line 5) and the size of the document (line 7). The meta-data entriesalso include an author's comment (line 23). In addition, there may beone or more back link entries (line 22) that are used for updatinginformation in documents that contain hyperlinks to the document towhich the meta-data relates (as described below). In addition to theentries shown, the meta-data may also comprise other information,including the language of the document, and a summary of changes;however, it is not intended that the information provided in themeta-data in any way be limited by the example set forth herein, sinceit will be evident that almost any information related to a web page maybe included.

[0075] As shown in FIG. 5, the process of creating and/or modifyingmeta-data entries is initiated when an author opens a new or existingHTML document in a block 300, and the document is modified in a block302 and saved in a block 304. Upon saving the document, the meta-datafor the document is created (if the document is new), or updated, asrelevant, in a block 306. This step creates new meta-data entries fornew documents, or updates meta-data entries for previously existingdocuments. The author may also add new meta-data information whenediting a document, such as providing comments concerning the changes.The meta-data entries are made to the contextual information file thatcorresponds to the HTML document being edited.

[0076] It is desirable to add the contextual information to thehyperlinks that refer to the HTML document being edited. Thus, the logicflows to a decision block 308, where a determination is made as towhether the document has any back links. A back link identifies thelocation of another document (called a referring document) on the website that contains a hyperlink to the edited HTML document. Forinstance, the “\cruises\index.htm” contextual information file shownabove (corresponding to Cruises page 118) contains a back linkinformation entry in line 22 that indicates traveltickets.com homepage100 (i.e. root\index.htm) contains a hyperlink to Cruises page 118.

[0077] Each referring document is then located in a block 310, anddisplay code for any relevant contextual information based onconsideration of the meta-data is promoted (i.e., added) to thereferring document in a block 312. The contextual information displaycode is added with a data promotion engine, as discussed in detailbelow. A decision block 314 determines if there are any additional backlinks within the referring document, and if there are, the back linkeddocument (i.e., referring document) is again located and the datapromotion step is repeated until there are no more referring documents.

[0078]FIG. 6 illustrates two schemes for promoting data to a referringdocument: a “save time” scheme and a “render time” scheme. Both schemesare performed on the web server side of the client-server environment.In both schemes, the contextual information, shown here as datainsertion components (DICs) 400, 402, and 404, is saved in the HTMLdocument's corresponding contextual information file. For instance,suppose that “index.htm” HTML file 133 in Cruises subfolder 134 has justbeen edited and saved. As a result, meta-data entries 406, correspondingto DICs 400, 402, and 404, are added to (or modified in) “index.htm”contextual information file 154.

[0079] At this point the schemes differ. Under the “save time” scheme, adata promotion engine 408 augments the back linked files by adding HTMLcode corresponding to the display of the contextual information for therecently saved file, whereupon the back linked files are saved. Forexample, data promotion engine 408 opens “index.htm” HTML document 131(corresponding to the homepage 100), adds lines of HTML codecorresponding to the contextual information that is desired to bepromoted to “Cruises” hyperlink 112 on homepage 100, and saves the file.The HTML content of “index.htm” document 131 can then be updated atrender time (i.e., at the time the client requests the document from theweb server and the web server uploads the document to the client forrendering) by a browser 410. The browser displays the content of thedocument as rendered homepage 100 a, which contains original “Cruises”hyperlink anchor 112, along with filled DICs 412, 414, and 416, whichcomprise graphical or textual content and are added in proximity to texthyperlink anchor 112. Each of these DICs respectively corresponds to thedata content of the corresponding one of DICs 400, 402, and 404.

[0080] Under the “render time” scheme, data promotion engine 408 doesnot promote the contextual information so that it is saved in thereferring page (e.g., “index.htm” HTML page 131). Instead, thecontextual information is dynamically added to the referring HTMLcontent as the web server uploads the document to the client when thedocument is requested for rendering by the browser. The browser on theclient side can only request and receive HTML content in the form of afile. Therefore, when the file for the display page (the referringdocument) is requested, data promotion engine 408 adds the contextualinformation HTML content dynamically in line to the (saved) HTML contentof the referring document.

[0081] A full view of a resultant rendered homepage 100 a is shown inFIG. 7A. The contextual information can be displayed as text or as anicon that corresponds to the contextual information, such as to indicatethe occurrence of a predefined event. For example, a clock icon 500 canbe used to indicate that the document to which the hyperlink is mapped(in this case, the Cruises page) has been changed within a predefinedtime period, such as within the last 24 hours. The clock icon is used toprovide an indication to the user that a recent change has been made tothe linked page. If no change was made during this time period, clockicon 500 will not be displayed, and the user will know that there is noneed to view the linked document in order to ascertain if a change hasbeen made. The clock icon can also be displayed with a dynamic text box502, based on a user action, such as placing the cursor over it,clicking on it, right clicking on it, etc. In this example, dynamic textbox 502 is used to display contextual information regarding the date andtime that the document was last modified, and who made the modification,but it will be apparent that other types of contextual information canbe displayed in the same manner.

[0082] Other icons can be used to provide the user with other types ofinformation about the linked page. For instance, an announcementmegaphone icon 504 is used in the example shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B toindicate that a substantial change has occurred in the linked page, suchas the addition of Mexican cruises to the Cruises page. Again, a dynamictext box (not shown) can be displayed based on user interaction with theannouncement icon. Another icon that can be used is a magnifying glassicon 506, which the user can select (click on with the cursor) todynamically display more detailed information about recent changes tothe linked page, such as that shown in a dynamic text box 508. Othericons that can be used will be apparent to those skilled in the art ofweb page design and development.

[0083] The decision to promote announcement megaphone 504 can also bebased on information provided by the client. For example, informationparsed from a history list in the client's browser can be forwarded tothe web server identifying the last time that a user viewed a particulardocument. If the document had been modified since the last viewing, anannouncement icon can be promoted to any hyperlinks within the web sitethat correspond to the previously viewed document. Alternatively, thecontextual information HTML content uploaded to the browser at rendertime can contain date and time modification information instructionsthat look at the history list and causes indicia to be displayed (suchas an icon or text) based on whether the site or page has been changedsince the user last visited it.

[0084] A “New Mexico Cruises!” text entry 510 is an example illustratingadding contextual information to a hyperlink by using display text. Textentry 510 is preferably displayed when the page is originally rendered,or alternatively, can be displayed based on user interaction with“Cruises” hyperlink anchor 112 or ship picture icon 104.

[0085] The contextual information discussed above as provided by any oficons 500, 504, 506 or other icons (not shown) could alternatively becaused to be displayed by user interaction with text hyperlink anchor112 and/or ship picture icon 104. For example, right clicking on texthyperlink anchor 112 could cause dynamic text box 502 and/or dynamictext box 508 to be displayed. In addition to the examples of contextualinformation discussed above, a variety of other contextual informationcan be added to the rendered page, either statically or dynamically, tohelp the user to decide whether to visit the linked document.

[0086] From the user's viewpoint, the “save time” scheme and the “rendertime” scheme produce a similar result. The HTML content received by thebrowser in the client computer contains HTML code for the requesteddocument that includes additional code for displaying the contextualinformation corresponding to the documents that may be viewed viahyperlinks in the displayed document. However, it is preferable to usethe “save time” scheme, because this scheme requires less overhead forthe server during render time. Additionally, the “save time” schemesupports the ability to promote contextual data for pages that arenested below the linked page, as follows.

[0087]FIG. 8 shows an example of the promotion of contextual data from anested link. Suppose “Caribbean.htm” HTML document 135 is modified toinclude information on fishing. When the document is saved, contextualinformation is stored as meta-data in “caribbean.htm” contextualinformation file 168. This information can be promoted not only to thereferring Cruises page, but also to the homepage. By promotingcontextual information from nested pages in this way, the user can beprovided with contextual information about changes to nested pages thatare disposed below an intermediate document corresponding to a hyperlinkcontained on the display page. The information that is displayed onhomepage 100 (or other page, as applicable) can include contextualinformation from both the intermediate page (e.g., Cruises page 118),and pages that are linked to the intermediate page (e.g., CaribbeanCruises page 128).

[0088] Promotion of data from nested documents is accomplished byrecursively following the back link information entries up the chain,and making appropriate changes to the corresponding HTML documents. Forinstance, “caribbean.htm” contextual information file 168 contains aback link information entry 512 that indicates “index.htm” HTML document133 (corresponding to the Cruises page) is a referring document. Thus,contextual information can be added to “index.htm” HTML document 133 sothat it is displayed in proximity to “Caribbean” text hyperlink anchor122 on Cruises page 118. In addition, back links 514 of contextualinformation file 166 are then checked to see if the contextual data forCaribbean Cruise page 128 can be promoted to a page at a higher level,such as homepage 100.

[0089]FIG. 7B shows an example of contextual information that ispromoted from Caribbean Cruise page 128 to homepage 10 b. Homepage 100 bnow displays a “World-Class Fishing in the Caribbean” text entry 516,under “New Mexico Cruises!” text entry 510. By user interaction withtext entry 516, such as by right clicking on it, a dynamic text box 518can be displayed to provide the user with more information about fishingin the Caribbean.

[0090] Another feature of the present invention is the ability toassociate category information with design components in web pagedocuments. This feature enables a web page author to insert a categorylist component in a design page. The category list component is used toautomatically generate hyperlinks to various documents based oncategorical information pertaining to the hyperlinks. For instance, anauthor on a bookstore web site may want to insert a category listcomponent into a web page that can be used to automatically generatehyperlinks to various web pages (documents) that describe bookscorresponding to the year 2000 problem. This can be accomplished byassigning one or more categories to various documents on a site, andinserting a category list component with an associated category into thedocument that is to contain the hyperlinks to each of the documents ofspecific categories. The following example explains the process indetail.

[0091]FIG. 9A shows a design page 550 in a FRONTPAGE™ page design window552. In the page design mode, a user can create web pages in a WYSIWYGenvironment by inserting various components, such as graphics and text,into the design page. In addition, the page design mode provides forinsertion of category list components. Each category list component isassociated with a “category_bot=” entry. Design page 550 contains twocategory list components, a “category_bot=large” category list component554, and a “category_bot=cats” category list component 556. The“category_bot=” entry associates the category list component to aspecific author defined ‘category’. Thus, category list component 554 isassociated with a “large” category, while category list component 556 isassociated with a “cats” category.

[0092] The category list components, are used to automatically generatea list of one or more hyperlinks to documents on a web that are assigneda category matching the category associated with each category listcomponent. For instance, suppose that a user has created three pagescorresponding to the “large” category, including: elephant.htm,rhino.htm, and hippo.htm, and three pages corresponding to the “cats”category, including: lion.htm, tiger.htm, and leopard.htm. Each of thesepages has an associated contextual information file containing meta-dataentries, as shown in FIG. 9C. These contextual information files includean elephant.htm file 558, rhino.htm file 560, hippo.htm file 562,lion.htm file 564, tiger.htm file 566, and leopard.htm file 568. Each ofthese contextual information files contains a category meta-data entrythat is used to assign a category to the page (the HTML document) withwhich the contextual information file is associated. For example, the“large” category is assigned to the HTML documents (not shown) that areassociated with contextual information files 558, 560, and 562, and the“cats” category is assigned to the HTML documents (not shown) that areassociated with contextual information files 564, 566, and 568. Thecategory meta-data entries are preferably added to a contextualinformation file when its associated document is saved, as describedabove. The categories can be explicitly defined by the user, or implicitas part of some other process (such as a pre-save scan of the documentfor keywords). A given document may be assigned to one or morecategories, or none at all.

[0093] When a design page is saved, an HTML document is created (ormodified) that contains the HTML code (and JAVA script, as applicable)for displaying the design page on a browser. At this point, the datapromotion engine is invoked to generate hyperlinks that correspond toeach of the category list components in a given design page. The datapromotion engine parses through the content of the design page documentin search of category_bot entries. When the data promotion engine comesto a “category_bot” entry, it parses through the contextual informationfiles on the site to identify any documents that are assigned to acategory matching the category indicated by the category_bot entry. Thedata promotion engine then generates the HTML code to insert hyperlinksinto the pages that have been assigned to the matching category.

[0094] For example, an HTML code listing 570 in the lower portion ofFIG. 9C illustrates a partial listing of the code for the HTML documentthat corresponds to design page 550. When the data promotion enginecomes to category list component 554, it parses the contextualinformation files, searching for files that contain a “category=large”meta-data entry. The data promotion engine keeps a record of thelocations of the parent documents (the document to which the contextualinformation file corresponds) for the contextual files that have a“category=” entry matching the desired category, and generates hypertextlink HTML code to create hyperlinks to the parent documents in thedesign page. For example, a hypertext link 572 contains the HTML code tocreate a hyperlink to the document “/large/elephant.htm” (using arelative addressing scheme). Hypertext links 574, and 576 correspond tothe parent documents of rhino.htm file 560 and hippo.htm file 562,respectively. A similar set of hypertext links 578, 580, and 582 arealso created that correspond to category list component 556.

[0095] The hyperlinks that are created on the display page(corresponding to the design page) are positioned relative to thelocation of the category list components on the design page. Forexample, FIG. 9B shows a display page 584, which corresponds to designpage 550, as viewed on a browser 586. Hyperlinks 588 correspond to pagesthat have been assigned to the “large” category, while the hyperlinks590 correspond to pages that have been assigned to the “cats” category.

[0096] Another feature of the category association scheme is the abilityto automatically promote new hyperlinks to design pages when new pagesare created and (or existing pages are) assigned to categories thatcorrespond to category list components in the design page, withoutrequiring the design page to be edited by a user so as to include thenew hyperlinks. When a new page is created and saved, its author has theoption of assigning a category to it. Alternately, an author can assigna category to an existing page or modify the category already assignedto an existing page. If a category is assigned to the new or existingpage, the category information is stored as a meta-data entry in thecontextual information file associated with the new or existing page,and the data promotion engine then parses through all of the documentson the site in search of documents that contain a category listcomponent matching the category of the new document. The data promotionengine opens the matching files and adds HTML code to these files to adda hyperlink to the new or existing document.

[0097] The category association scheme also allows web pages to berelated by category information, thereby enabling a web site author toeasily identify some or all of the documents that correspond to aspecific category based on the category entry in the contextualinformation.

[0098] Exemplary Operating Environment

[0099]FIG. 10 and the following discussion are intended to provide abrief, general description of a suitable computing environment in whichthe invention may be implemented. The present invention preferably isimplemented as part of an application program in a web authoringenvironment, wherein the application program is executed by a personalcomputer or workstation. The application program comprises a pluralityof program modules that include routines, programs, objects, components,and data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implementparticular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art willappreciate that the invention may be practiced with other computersystem configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessorsystems, microprocessor based or programmable consumer electronics,network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Theinvention may also be practiced in distributed computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

[0100] With reference to FIG. 10, an exemplary system for implementingthe invention (as either the client computer or the server computer)includes a general purpose computing device in the form of aconventional personal computer 620, including a processing unit 621, asystem memory 622, and a system bus 623 that couples various systemcomponents including the system memory to processing unit 621. Systembus 623 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memorybus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any ofa variety of bus architectures. The system memory includes read onlymemory (ROM) 624 and random access memory (RAM) 625. A basicinput/output system (BIOS) 626, containing the basic routines that helpsto transfer information between elements within personal computer 620,such as during start-up, is stored in ROM 624. Personal computer 620further includes a hard disk drive 627 for reading from and writing to ahard disk, not shown, a magnetic disk drive 628 for reading from orwriting to a removable magnetic disk 629, and an optical disk drive 630for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 631 such as aCD-ROM or other optical media. Hard disk drive 627, magnetic disk drive628, and optical disk drive 630 are connected to system bus 623 by ahard disk drive interface 632, a magnetic disk drive interface 633, andan optical disk drive interface 634, respectively. The drives and theirassociated computer readable media provide nonvolatile storage ofcomputer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, andother data for personal computer 620. Although the exemplary environmentdescribed herein employs a hard disk, removable magnetic disk 629, andremovable optical disk 631, it should be appreciated by those skilled inthe art that other types of computer readable media which can store datathat is accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flashmemory cards, digital video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, RAMs, ROMs, andthe like may also be used in the exemplary operating environment.

[0101] A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk,magnetic disk 629, optical disk 631, ROM 624, or RAM 625, including anoperating system 635, one or more application programs 636, otherprogram modules 637, and program data 638. A user may enter commands andinformation into personal computer 620 through input devices such as akeyboard 640 and a pointing device 642. Other input devices (not shown)may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner,or the like. These and other input devices are often connected toprocessing unit 621 through a serial port interface 646 that is coupledto the system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as aparallel port, game port, or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 647or other type of display device is also connected to system bus 623 viaan interface, such as a video adapter 648. In addition to the monitor,personal computers typically include other peripheral output devices(not shown), such as speakers and printers.

[0102] Personal computer 620 may operate in a networked environmentusing logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as aremote computer 649. Remote computer 649 may be another personalcomputer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device, or othercommon network node, and typically includes many or all of the elementsdescribed above relative to personal computer 620, although only amemory storage device 650 has been illustrated in FIG. 10. The logicalconnections depicted in FIG. 10 include a local area network (LAN) 651and a wide area network (WAN) 652. Such networking environments arecommonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets,and the Internet.

[0103] When used in a LAN networking environment, personal computer 620is connected to LAN 651 through a network interface or adapter 653. Whenused in a WAN networking environment, personal computer 620 typicallyincludes a modem 654 or other means for establishing communications overWAN 652, such as the Internet. Modem 654, which may be internal orexternal, is connected to system bus 623 via serial port interface 646.In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative topersonal computer 620, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remotememory storage device. It will be appreciated that the networkconnections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing acommunications link between the computers may be used.

[0104] Although the present invention has been described in connectionwith the preferred form of practicing it, those of ordinary skill in theart will understand that many modifications can be made thereto withinthe scope of the claims that follow. Accordingly, it is not intendedthat the scope of the invention in any way be limited by the abovedescription, but instead be determined entirely by reference to theclaims that follow.

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 31. A method for generating hyperlinks in a referringdocument to documents that are stored on a server, each of the documentshaving a server address, the method comprising the steps of: (a)assigning at least one category to at least one of the documents storedon the server; (b) storing document category information on the serverfor each of the documents that has been assigned a category, thedocument category information associating each of said documents with:(i) the category assigned to the document; and (ii) an address of thedocument on the server; (c) inserting a category list component in thereferring document, the category list component being associated with aselected category; (d) identifying documents that have been assigned acategory matching the selected category by parsing through the documentcategory information; and (e) generating computer instructions in thereferring document to create hyperlinks to the documents identified instep (d), each hyperlink being based on the address of the documentidentified thereby.
 32. The method of claim 31, wherein the documentcategory information is stored in contextual information files, furthercomprising the step of producing a separate contextual information filefor each document assigned a category.
 33. The method of claim 31,further comprising the step of automatically generating a hyperlink to anew document in a referring document when the new document is createdand is assigned a category that matches a selected category in thereferring document.
 34. A computer readable media having computerexecutable instructions for performing the steps of claim 31.